Sechelt council gave three readings Feb. 15 to a new Business Improvement Area (BIA) bylaw that allows the Sechelt Downtown Business Association (SDBA) to levy up to $70,000 a year from business property owners within the designated boundary for the next five years.
Now business property owners will have a little over a month to stop it by way of petition, if they don’t approve.
Under the new bylaw, funds will be collected based on the number of business licence holders within the boundary, rather than a flat rate per parcel, as was the practice in the past.
The change is intended to ensure more parity between business parcel owners paying into the BIA, which is used by the SDBA to promote those businesses.
The proposed new BIA boundary is irregular in shape and includes some properties on Teredo Street, Cowrie Street, Seiner Lane, Mermaid Street, Periwinkle Lane, Inlet Avenue and Wharf Avenue.
Coun. Darnelda Siegers suggested the SDBA include more properties in the BIA and that the business association should have more flexibility to increase the yearly requisition amount, but she was told both changes would be difficult to make.
Mayor Bruce Milne said BIAs are “complicated” and noted, “the word gerrymandering has real meaning” in the process of setting them up.
“They’re put in place with the support of those who are willing to be a part and participate and with the exclusion of those who have given strong indications that they will not participate and will vote against it and will be a negative hindrance if it goes forward,” Milne said.
Corporate officer Jo-Anne Frank also noted the yearly requisition amount has to be stipulated in the bylaw and set at that same amount for five years, so there was no flexibility to change it.
When the vote was called to give the new BIA bylaw three readings, all but Siegers were in favour and it passed.
Now business parcel owners within the BIA boundary will be mailed a letter from the district that will offer them a chance to petition the bylaw, if they don’t agree with it.
Frank said more than 50 per cent of properties within the BIA have to petition against the bylaw “for it to die.”
“So less than that, and the proposal continues.”
Petitions against the bylaw will be accepted for 30 days from when the second legal notice about the bylaw appears in Coast Reporter.
Then the new BIA bylaw will come back to council for consideration of adoption.
